GPU Workstation build

[luketulley]

Hi all.

 

I'm planning on my first workstation build and wanted opinions and advice before I take the plunge. This workstation will be used primarilarily for 3dsmax 2015 & vray 3 rendering, photoshop / fusion for editing (no gaming). I'm looking to utilise GPU rendering for retail renders not needing advanced mats or disp & also fusion editing - max scenes are often large thus the 12gb Titan X in my below spec, whilst still retaining a good spec'd cpu workstation as we don't have any render nodes atm.

 

The build specs I have so far are as follows:

 

i7-5960X

Noctua NH-D15

X99-DELUXE

Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) - (future upgrade to 64gb)

Samsung 850 Pro 512GB

GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Video Card (future upgrade to 3 way sli)

Fractal Design Define R5

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W (to support the 3 titan x cards)

 

The main basis for this build is from Dimitris "Workstation Powerhouse" on pcfoo.

 

Any help and advice would be more than appreciated, aside from some great forum topics I feel like I might be going into this blind so feel free to speak out if I've got it completely wrong - also one last note... This is a business investment so I'm looking to spend the money wisely and not just waste it where not necessary.

 

Cheers!

Edited April 12, 2015 by luketulley

[deadkaiser]

You need to get a bigger PSU I would go for at least 1200W!!

[Dimitris Tolios]

If you won't overclock the cards, you will probably do fine with the 1000W even with a "mildly" overclocked 5960X and a couple of Titan Xs.

But if you think that the 3x Titan is a real probability, you might want to but the PSU to 1200W to add some headroom to the unit.

 

Nomatter how you stretch it, it is unlikely that a 1000W PSU will spend more than a fraction of its life stressed beyond 30-50% in a workstation like yours, and modern units do live up to expectations even at 100% loads, but "just to be safe" and/or allowing for a lil bit of overclocking (that can add 80-100W to the real consumption of each Titan) I would go for a 1200W.

 

To put things into perspective: my 3930K and Titan I, both heavily overclocked (without dangerous voltages for the CPU / custom firmware for the GPU) would pull as much as 710-720W out of the plug. The system consumption with just the CPU @ 100% and a very efficient CPU idling (less than est. 15-20W on the GPU) could go past 300-330W @ 4.7-4.9GHz, including ofc the very very small by comparison individual consumption of HDD+SSD+WC loop+RAM+Mobo etc. The CPU is easily 80-90% of the consumption in this scenario.

If I was to add a second Titan, I would go too close to 1000W in a hurry.

 

The 5960X is a newer and more efficient chip with smaller lithography, but it is also a 8-core, so overclocked at even lower clocks will be pushing well over 250W.

 

Also note that the overclocking performance gains are notable, but do take a big toll in consumption: you might expect 20% gains on a Titan X, but you will be adding easily 30-50% consumption overall (exaggerated maybe, Maxwell is very "lean"). So don't think you can ever "beat" the performance of 3x stock cards with 2x oced ones, but you can certainly try to match the consumption of the former with the latter!

Edited April 17, 2015 by dtolios

[luketulley]

Cheers for the advice - I'll go for the EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 so I've got some headroom for the third card. And I will definately look at overclocking in the intrim Dimitris - great info!